Max Verstappen claims the first non-Mercedes pole of the year ahead of the 2020 season finale in Abu Dhabi

Max Verstappen was able to claim his first pole position of the year at Abu Dhabi and the first at the Yas Marina Circuit since 2013.

The Dutchman put his Red Bull on the front row of the grid after a fantastic last flying-lap propelled him ahead of Bottas who dropped to second.

On his return after contracting Covid-19, Hamilton couldn’t grab his 99th pole position of the year as he settled for third-best alongside Lando Norris in fourth.

Alex Albon will start on the third row of the grid alongside Norris’ teammate, Carlos Sainz, as they qualified fifth and sixth respectively.

Daniil Kvyat put in another great qualifying performance as he put his AlphaTauri into seventh-place with Lance Stroll beside him in eighth. Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly rounded off the top ten in ninth and tenth.

A collapse by the Renault pair saw them qualify outside the top ten with Esteban Ocon in 11th and Daniel Ricciardo in 12th. On his final qualifying session for Ferrari, Sebastian Vettel was not able to qualify in the top ten as his lap was only able to get him up to 13th.

Antonio Giovinazzi qualified 14th, Sergio Perez made his way through to Q2 but did not set a competitive time and he is set to start at the back of the grid due to changes with his engine parts. Kimi Raikkonen narrowly missed on Q2 as he qualified 16th with Kevin Magnussen qualifying 17th but will also drop to the back due to engine part changes.

George Russell came back down to reality as he jumped back into his Williams and qualified 18th ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi in 19th and Nicholas Latifi in 20th.

As It Happened

Q1

The last qualifying of the year got underway as the green light shone at the end of the pitlane.

Pietro Fittipaldi and Kevin Magnussen came out first to set their competitive times of the first session at the Yas Marina Circuit.

Magnussen was first over the line with a lap time of a 1:38.086 with Fittipaldi one-tenth slower than his Haas teammate.

After the first set of time-laps, Valtteri Bottas was first with Sergio Perez in second and Alex Albon in third.

The top three from the first session saw Lewis Hamilton return to the top with Bottas followed in second and Charles Leclerc in his Ferrari was third.

Kimi Raikkonen, Kevin Magnussen, George Russell, Pietro Fittipaldi and Nicholas Latifi were all knocked out in Q1.

Q2

The second qualifying session got underway on time with the Mercedes pair of Bottas and Hamilton out on the track first.

The seven-time World Champion was over the line first and set the time of 1:35.466 with Bottas a tenth behind and Carlos Sainz seven-tenths back.

Albon and Daniel Ricciardo both got their lap times deleted after exceeding tracks limits at Turn 20 and 21.

Hamilton was able to top another session with Bottas in second and Max Verstappen in third.

The drivers eliminated at the end of Q2 were: Esteban Ocon, Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi and Perez.

Q3

The top ten shootout got underway as two Mercedes, two Red Bull’s, one Racing Point, two AlphaTauri’s, one Ferrari and two McLaren’s battle for pole position.

Lance Stroll led the pack out of the pit-lane for the final qualifying session of the year.

After the first set of flying laps, Bottas put his Mercedes on provisional pole as Verstappen split the two Mercedes as he put his car into second with Hamilton in third and the second Red Bull of Albon in fourth.

However, Verstappen denied Mercedes a clean sweep in pole positions in 2020 as the Dutchman leapfrogged Bottas into first.

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